- using the seam ripper, open up the seam of your pants, (either the outside or the inside one) that doesn't have the external double seam. (mine don't have double seam on either side, so I decided to open the outside one, which will be easier to sew on the upper side of the pants)

- open the legs of your pants and iron it, so you have a nice flat surface to work on- pin your zippers over the fabric, in random vertical order, some zip up, some zip down.

- although I don't like hate doing the basting, I figured out that it would be safer to bast all these zippers onto the pants, just to play on the safe side, since they have to be all nice and straight.

- bast some more and try your pants on: to see how you like it and if the zippers are going exactly where you want.

- start sewing these beauties on your pants using the zipper foot on your machine.- I sewed with a medium (3) zigzag stitch on the external part of the ribbon, so the zipper would lay nice and flat without "flapping" out.

- sew back the legs of your pants (I opted to sew starting from the waist down to make sure the fabric wouldn't move and be uneven).

- ask me what are my fave for the summer to come? ;)

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Options

- if you want you can slash the fabric under your zippers: this extra operation will require that you serger or zigzag the slashed parts to prevent fraying (Although by looking at the picture, it looks like some of the zippers are open and the fabric underneath is intact)

- you can do just the front of your legs or go for the total effect

One piece of practical advise:

You might not use these pants if you're planning to board a plane, or you'll most likely loose a lot of time being searched (if not strip searched).

I liked chemistry back in school.... honestly I don't know if I really liked the complicated part of these lines and symbols and numbers on the blackboard or the appeal was all about messing around with this thin glassware in the lab...

Anyway, it's driving me crazy that I'm not able to find the source of the design vase that I'm going to replicate today, but it looked pretty much exactly like this :

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(except for the fact that the belt was in a different color) I was looking at it in the window and I couldn't stop thinking that this baby was screaming DIY ME!

So, the "buy it now" button on ebay has been clicked again for : 1 lot of 30 "test tubes glass" 7" tall and 1 lot of 20 "test tubes glass" 6" tall.

If you have a double ring style belt, you are pretty much done, otherwise stay with me...

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

What I didn't know at that moment was that I wasn't going to use the nautical rope (which it's sitting in my stash, but already allocated for another project, stay tuned...), but I would have given another ride to my spool knitter.UPDATE: making this bracelet using a knit instead of rope will make it stretchy, which means that you can take it off (a.k.a. will not give you rheumatism on your wrist by having a wet thing on your wrist for hours after a shower..)

* and the tapestry needle (actually I used three needles, but a needle and two toothpicks will do)

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the tutorial stated that you need 3.5 yr of rope: given the fact that my wrist is waaaaay smaller of a soup can, I felt comfortable to spool knit about 3 yr, and took me about 45 minutes (I don't even want to think about hand knitting something like that in an icord)

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weave the open stitches just in order to prevent the unravelling, but keep in mind that you will need to open up these stitches again, I just pass the needle through and left the tail on.

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and I started following the tutorial on etsy, my perfect wrist size: my glue magna-tac bottle (why am I not surprised?)...and braided my glue bottle until I've got the three rounds done.

now comes the fun part: instead of having a bulky, big knot by tying the two parts of the rope:* open the stitches that you secured at the very beginning* also take the other side of the rope and unravel what are your first stitches on the knitting spool* you will have to parts with open stitches

* unravel all the extra rope on both sides until you have just enough to connect the two parts, in my case about 1/2" on each side

* take the tapestry needles or the two toothpicks and slide your stitches on, like on knitting needles.

* keeping the two side of the cords on the right side facing each other

* sew the two ropes together using the mattress stitch: I tried to take pictures, but because of the color and the size of the work, it didn't work out, but I found a nice tutorial here.

* now I'm happy to make a knot and wave the tails in with only one tiny strand of yarn.

The infinity sailor knot bracelet just made it onto my wrist!

Extra bonus: using the knit instead of a regular rope makes it very soft and stretchy!

Today I'm refashioning a tank top (in good hope that the temperature will eventually rise in NYC and be able to wear it soon).

I bought an aqua color tank top, and when I think aqua, I think ocean - when I think ocean, I think coral... yes, it's a one way street for me.

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All you need:- a tank top or a t-shirt- the Embellish Knit! spool knitter- some red cotton yarn- a tapestry needle

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start by measuring the circumference of the neck opening: in my tank top it's about 29" (not stretched)

Now, the fun part: start making the spool knit!

(you can also make this all project without the spool knit, by hand knitting an icord, although this means that you would take much longer to complete your shirt)

I made (measurements are approximate: have you ever seen a branch of coral with a ruler?)

- 1 cord of 31" length,

- 5 cords of 4" length,

- 10 cords of 3" length,

- 5 cords of 1-3/4" length,

- 20 cords of something between 3/4" and 1" length,

this is only a small part of it, and looks pretty messy...

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Sorry, but now it's about the slightly long and tedious part (but it will be worth it, I promise!) - turn on your favorite music, and grab your tapestry needle.

* start by linking one of the 4" or the 3" cord onto the 31" one, (at about 4" from the beginning of the cord)by hand sewing the 4 open stitches. Make sure you have secured all 4 of the open stitches, so it won't unravel.

* wave in and cut the remaining yarn* now take one of the 1" cord and link it onto the 4" one.

* ... and another 1" cord onto the other side

* ... and another 1" cord right in the middle of what looks like a "Y"

* weave in the tais on the top of the cords

see? you've just terminated your first coral branch!

* and repeat, again and again... leaving random lengths in between your coral branches

* remember: it's random, so there's no right or wrong.

...a couple of hours later, you should get to something like this:

it's almost done!

* pin your knitted coral onto the shirt

* try the shirt on and make sure that it-looks-just-perfect

* using the same yarn, hand sew the coral on the shirt

I decided to leave some parts "free", without sewing them onto the shirt, to give it more of a 'floating' feel.

The FRONT (with my - of course - coral silver pendant)

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After having this shirt for awhile, I decided to remove the coral embellishment from it, and use the coral branch as a necklace, just adding a clasp and a ring to the ends... the result is way much more versatile, and I can wear it more often!

This macramé knot is very easy, it called cobra knot.Since I learned myself how to make it on youtube by somebody that has better video skills that I could ever imagine, check this cobra stitch tutorial.

I made the bracelet using two strands of cord to make it bulkier. mine it's 8" long (turned out being a bit big for me, but will be fixed!)

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*Follow the same method as mentioned hereto burn the edges*stitch the tails of the knot hiding inside the knot itself Don't stitch the strands of the inner side of the knot, just melt the edges, and sew them tight together so that you'll ended up having two ends.

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* take one headpin and pass it into the end cap (head inside the cap), with the help of the pliers make a loop and wrap it so it won't open loose.* repeat with the other end cap & headpin.

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* shoot some glue on the two strands and slip onto the end cups.

* spread apart the two loops, like in the picture

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* connect the clasps using the split rings* connect the split rings also to the loop on the end cap

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* connect the chain to one of the split ring of one the clasp * slip the safety pin into the other end of the chain* start weaving the chain in and out (I left the chain loose between each pass) * keep going until you reach the other side

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* weave the chain around the two strands at the end

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* using the matching thread, stitch the last ring of the chain to the cord* remove the excess glue!